July 4 Parade

Flags, palm trees and little old ladies. Just a few of my favorite things.

Model Search

The Hawaiian Tropic Model Search came to Corpus Christi over the weekend. Other than the women strutting around in bikinis, their wasn't much visually to work with. The auditions were held in this plain, poorly lit workout room on the second floor of a Gold's Gym. They did an interview, changed into their swimsuits, then did a little walk for the model search director. What I found funny was that there was no place to change near the audition room. So the girls had to go to the locker room downstairs on the other side of the gym to change, forcing them to strut pass regular folks working out to get back to the audition room. It was so awkwardly fantastic that I had to shoot it.

Pool Shots

I was in a wierd mood today (I think it's called heat stroke), so I took some wierd shots at the pool.

Snooper Dooper

Oh, the Closet Snoop. You either love it or you hate it. Or, you love to hate it.

The weekly Sunday fashion feature generates the web hits, but also illicits the ire of some readers. Earlier this year as the paper began to shrink and sections and features were cut, I heard the same thing again and again from angry (usually older) readers. "How can you cut (blank) but keep that Closet Snoop!?"

I'll tell you why. Because it's fantastic!

Though they can sometimes be super stressfull and exhausting, they are also super fun to shoot. Get a good subject, some cool clothes and some great locations, and you've got gold. Plus, the photo above ran six columns across the page. Six columns! Where else in the paper am I gonna get that kind of play?



I'm no fashion photography expert, but every couple of weeks I get to pretend I am. It's great when I get a woman that likes to play along. None of the women selected are models, just real people that were nominated or asked to be considered because of their love of clothes.

It's such a creative challenge sometimes. Usually we arrive at these people's home or business with no advance knowledge of their clothes or what the location will look like. It's a scramble, and my mind runs a mile a minute as I run lights, rearrange furniture and do my best to give directions. I always leave exhausted. And if I'm lucky, I come away with some really cool images, too.

Kids and Cows

Well, I guess technically they are all steers. That didn't seem to stop me from calling them cows, even though each child/volunteer I said it to quickly corrected me. Clearly I was never an ag student in high school.

These are from a steer validation, where kids brought in their cows steers to be registered, tagged and tattooed before they can be entered into next year's livestock show. They even took hair samples and nose prints. If one of those cows commits a crime, they're screwed.

State Championships

Moody's Magic ran out last week. After making it to the Austin and advancing to the final round of the state championships, the Trojans lost to Texarkana. It was interesting to see the same two players go from sort of a relief reaction after winning the first game, to devastation in the final game.


Much like Moody, I felt like I came up short on the final game. I still came away with some photos I liked. Thankfully another one of our staff photographers came up for the final game to back me up.





The catcher became one of my favorite players on the team over the course of the playoffs. Dubbed "Little Big Man" by one of our headlines last week, it looks like the name is gonna stick. He's a great athlete and also one of the more emotional players on the field. He had the final at bat(below) but was thrown out at first to end the game, giving Texarkana the 4-3 win.





Better luck next year, Moody.

State Bound

Corpus Christi is home to two of the best high school baseball teams, not just in the state, but in the country. Both teams are ranked in the top 5 in national polls. So it was kind of a big deal this weekend when the two teams went head to head battling for a spot in the state baseball tournament. The series went down to the third game, with the No. 1 ranked Moody Trojans taking the regional title. I was kind of thrown back into the night shift a couple of weeks ago, lucky for me. I've really enjoyed getting to shoot these baseball playoff games. Tomorrow, I will ride their wave of success to Austin for the opening day of the state tournament.



The size of the crowd was insane. Whataburger Field sold out for the first two games. The first game brought in more than 9,000 people. It was the second largest crowd the field has ever seen. The largest crowd was when the Astros came down to play an exhibition game against their minor-league affiliates earlier this year.

(my Andy Shupe rip off)

Graduation

I lucked out this year, and didn't have to cover any of the big high school graduations. But that doesn't mean I dodged the Pomp-and-Circumstance bullet all together. Last week I shot two small ceremonies, a Kinder-ready graduation, and an alternative high school/GED graduation.

Another Day At The Office

Coffee Break

Even a fifth grader needs his jolt of Starbucks in the morning. With soy milk, please.

What really surprised me (besides hearing a 10-year-old talk about his love of lattes) was that he wasn't the only one jonesing for a cup of joe. Several of the kids apparently had either made a Starbucks run or had it delievered before the start of their Renaissance Faire event. Gotta love those private schools.

Coronation

I love high society!

So last night I got to catch the action backstage for the Buc Days Coronation Pageant. Its an annual event where young girls wear extravagant, hand-made dresses and are paraded around an arena for all to see. I've never been to one of their shows before, so I wasn't sure what to expect going in. Apparently they've had reputation for being a little uptight about media access in the past, but not this year.

Everyone was super nice and let me roam free for about two hours back stage before the show. The only time I was told to wait outside was when the girls weren't "decent," which is totally understandable. Even then I found other subjects to shoot while I waited. It was a blast.




I spent way too much time there last night, but I got a lot of photos I liked. If you want to see more from the evening, check out the photo gallery I created for caller.com.